The practice of percussion drumming has traditionally used practice drum pads having a resilient upper striking surface of a body that is designed to muffle or reduce the noise levels otherwise accompanying the use of a percussion drum. Such reduction in noise levels protects a user's hearing, as well as the hearing of any nearby persons, and attempts to minimize the otherwise loud sound of a traditional drum. The resilient upper striking surface is designed to mimic the striking head of a traditional drum so that such practice on the drum pad mimics playing on a traditional drum. Practice drum pads are also just that, limited to practice playing a drum(s).
Some examples of practice drum pads include the reversible practice pad for drum practice disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,723,593 to Prentice et al. (hereinafter “Prentice”). In Prentice, the reversible pad includes a planar base having at least one sloping base-riser projecting upwardly, and a planar platform having at least one sloping platform-riser projecting downwardly. Each exposed surface of the base-riser and the platform-riser has either one of a two-part fastening material designed to reversible mate when joined together. For example the top surface of the base-riser may have the first part of the fastening material and the bottom surface of the platform-riser may have the second part of the fastening material. The base-riser and platform-riser are designed such that when joined in a first position the planar platform is parallel to the planar base, and when joined in a second position, the planar platform is angled relative to the planar base, and to the surface upon which the planar base is positioned. Such angling of the planar platform mimics the angle of, for example, a snare drumhead as played normally, and when the planar platform is in the first position and not so angled, it mimics, for example, a floor tom-tom.
An older example of such a practice pad is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,346,588 to H. A. Bower (hereinafter “Bower”). The Bower discloses a drum practice pad having a layer of sound insulating material between an upper lower base of rather dense or hard wood having apertures therein to receive lacing ribbon to bind the base and sound insulating material layer to an upper sounding board (formed of a stiff but flexible material such as, for example, gutta percha, whalebone, paper mache, or fiberboard) covered in felt.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,495,495 to Adler (hereafter “Adler”) discloses a drum practice pad having: (1) a box-like structure with a thick rectangular base 10; (2) front and back side walls 11, 12 mounted on the base 10; with (3) an open-ended resonant sound chamber; (4) a resilient practice pad 20 of rubber, for example; over (5) a central thin percussion portion 18. Opposing thick wooden doors 21 for the ends of the box are each hinged at their lower edges and are connected to means for adjusting the doors 21. During use, adjustably opening and closing the doors 21 control the sound volume.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,186,290 to Gould et al. (hereafter “Gould”) discloses a drum practice device that is a rectangular box-like configuration including: (1) an upper, rigid, frame member having: (1) a central opening; (2) a base of similar material as the upper frame member; (3) joined by side walls enclosing a shock absorbing chamber beneath the opening; (4) a cushioning material is inserted to a non-compressed height flush with surface of frame; (5) air release apertures extend through the base to the chamber; and (6) a flexible energy transmitting pad formed of a rubber sheet material overlies central opening. In one embodiment, a Gould device may be inclined.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,362,407 to Dennis et al. (hereinafter “Dennis”) discloses a drum practice pad comprised of a flat circular piece of hard material having a flat circular piece of resilient material bonded to the upper surface. The flat circular piece of resilient material may have a diameter less than the diameter of the circular piece of hard material. One embodiment is to a drum practice pad for use on a table top or the like, and includes three modified circular cushions spaced from the center of the hard material by a distance equal to two-thirds the radius of the hard material. Various mounting structures are also disclosed.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,829,319 to Martinazzi (hereinafter “Martinazzi”) discloses a percussion instrument comprising a batter and a resonant drum both including a ring base, a lateral wall that stands on it, with each drum spaced from each other and facing with their bases to define a lateral opening for the air set in vibration by two members. Martinazzi also discloses a schematic of the modulation of the sound waves in the percussion instrument.
However, conventional practice drum pads have several drawbacks and are suited for practice, and are not suited for practice and performances.